Amid worries about an economic recession, PC demand took a double-digit dive in the second quarter, according to research firm IDC.
PC shipments fell 15.3% year over year in Q2, IDC estimates, marking the second consecutive quarter the PC market has suffered a shipment decline following two years of high growth.
Market analysts have been anticipating a slowdown in PC demand, but IDC says this Q2 decline is “worse than expected.” It blamed part of the problem on COVID-19 lockdowns in China, which triggered production delays at factories.
The other issue is “persistent macroeconomic headwinds” amid high inflation and oil prices. “Fears over a recession continue to mount and weaken demand across segments,” says IDC analyst Jitesh Ubrani.
"Consumer demand for PCs has weakened in the near term and is at risk of perishing in the long term as consumers become more cautious about their spending and once again grow accustomed to computing across device types such as phones and tablets,” he adds.
In other words, the PC market risks returning to pre-COVID shipment levels, when demand for laptops and desktops was largely stagnant. It was only in 2020 when the PC market saw massive shipment growth as people were forced to purchase new equipment in order to work and study from home during the pandemic.
In some good news, IDC notes that PC vendors shipped 71.3 million units in Q2, which is still significantly higher than the 62.1 million and 65.1 million units the PC market shipped during the same periods in 2018 and 2019, respectively.
The challenge for the PC market is to find growth avenues when many areas are already tapped out. "With education PC appetite saturating and consumer demand stagnating, the US PC market is staring at another quarter of double-digit decline across most segments," says IDC analyst Neha Mahajan.
“Commercial PC demand is also showing signs of a slowdown, however there are still pockets of growth expected in certain commercial sub-segments where demand for low-mid range Windows devices remains active and unfilled,” Mahajan adds.
In Q2, both HP and Apple posted the biggest shipment declines at over 20%. But IDC expects Apple to ramp up its Mac production later this year.